China’s Southern Provinces Face Rain, Snow as Temperatures Rise

China’s weather agency called for southern parts of the country to prepare for widespread rain and snow as temperatures in the north, which had fallen to as low as negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit, began to climb.

Precipitation was forecast for the Yangtze Delta region around Shanghai, portions of Yunnan province and other parts of southern China, the China Meteorological Administration said in an e-mailed statement. Rain and snow in these areas may spread and intensify from tomorrow, it said.

Preparations should be made to protect against the effects of the weather on transportation and agriculture, the weather agency said. Freezing temperatures and snowfall in northern China in the past week had blocked expressways in Xinjiang, prompted officials to urge cities to conserve heating and killed two tourists stranded on a mountain near Beijing.

Temperatures have since begun to rise, increasing by 8 to 15 degrees Celsius yesterday in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, the meteorological administration said.

Portions of Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, were forecast again to see blizzards today, it said. Some northern parts of the province have seen as much as 1.5 meters of snowfall in the past few days, the agency said.

Rainfall is forecast tomorrow for Nanning, capital of Guangxi province, and for Changsha, capital of Hunan province. Shanghai was also forecast to see showers, according to the weather agency’s National Meteorological Center. Rain wasn’t forecast for the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Zheng Lifei in Beijing at lzheng32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net